Week 13

This week's  theme was an attitude of gratitude and it was one of my favorite lessons! "Count your blessings, names them one by one...."

We learned some extremely important factors of gratitude such as gratitude is like a muscle. Also, gratitude is a verb, it is the ACTION of being thankful.

How does gratitude relate to....

Happiness
Health
Success

Gratitude empowers us  to find greater happiness, it increases our well being, and it plays a major role in our success. There is not one person who would rather work with a bitter, ungrateful person. People want to work with optimistic people with an attitude of gratitude.

Some important practices which can increase our gratitude are the following,

-Keep a gratitude journal and write in it EVERYDAY. Something that I have been working on is before I read my scriptures and pray at night, I jot down what I am thankful for that day. It makes my scripture study and my prayer much more meaningful.
-Go on a gratitude visit (find  someone to thank (write a letter)

Something we did in class was send a text to tell someone we are grateful for them.

A friend of mine, whom I really admire came home early from his mission this week. I texted him and told him how proud I was of him and how grateful I was to have him as a friend. It was a really good experience for me and I realized  that I need to express my feelings for the people in my life more often. I am SO lucky to have such incredible relationships that I take for granted. I think my friend really appreciated my text, and it was kind of funny how this lesson matched up with what has been going on in my life, (well his life, but still.)

A few other notes I jotted down in class were,

When you implement an attitude of gratitude, you don't have anything to lose except negative feelings.

"Because we see things so often, we see them less and less." This quote really stuck with me and made me realize, I need  to acknowledge the small things in my life; the tender mercies God has given me.